Vintage Aprons and some new Fabric

I knew I couldn't hold on much longer before I had to have my Op Shop fix. And look what I found...
This beautiful linen apron with applique and embroidered detail. I just love it. It's had a bit of a wash and press, and its so nice I want to put it in a frame or something!!

The detail is so fine.

And then this little miss. A cute little gingham number. I do love ginham.


This cool paisly fabric

And a neat table cloth, I love this fabric. Not sure what I will do with them yet!

Spotlight were having a "Clear the Bolt Sale", so I got these.

It would have been rude not to, don't you think?

Yum I can't wait to get into some sewing...

Just don't tell Mr Busy, how I spend our money!!

How sad am I?

I did a giveaway thingy. Actually it was Pay It Forward, but that's not important right now.
And guess what? I have two comments on that post. Yes people you heard it. Two.
And guess what? One of the comments was mine!!!
How unpopular am I? It just confirms that I'm just not as popular as I think I am. But now its out there in the world in full living colour. Oh the shame of it!! Look don't feel bad that you didn't want to play Pay It Forward with me. Truely I've been used to it from an early age. Like in Standard Three when I would suggest "Tiggy"? Everyone else would go off and play "Whats the Time Mr Wolf"? Or I would bring crochet to school, and then everyone else would be playing marbles. That sort of thing.
I probably cut a bit of a sorry figure in the playground, trying to chuck a tennis ball at non existent opponents, or trying to quickly crochet up a bag of marbles. But that's not important right now.
Having just the one comment does have it's upside though, because it means I only have to make one thing.
And to keep it official please standby for the winner of the PAY IT FORWARD, giveaway thingy, from my previous post...

Duh duh duh duh daaaah daaaaaaa.....

Deanne from Trying Traditional

if you could email me with your contact details, I will get onto it as soon as I can. I have my wonderfully delightful Scottish cousins over in NZ at the moment so the sewing room has been a bit neglected, but it will be in the post as soon as I can humanly make it.

Now do ya wanna play "Bullrush"?

Pay it Forward, Giveaway thingy, whatever you want to call it. Its here...!

I was over at dearfii, and I got picked! Yaay I got picked!! So it's my turn to PIF. Thats Pay it Forward to those not in the know. I wasn't in the know at first and was getting it all mixed up with a PDF!! But anyhoo, enough about my lack of attention to detail. Here are the rules:
I will make a handmade gift for the first 3 interested people who comment on this post. I have 365 days (ample time) to do it in...You must have a blog to join in and be willing to do the same for three other people...

Please note: I will post internationally!!

I hope I can live up to all these other fabo crafty bloggers. But what the hey, I'm chucking myself in the deep end. So its sink or swim for me!!! Go and tell your friends... Oh yeah and check out Fi's blog, its good! Now, I've gotta go and do some sewing ...

It's a cover up...!

A yucky chair...

What do you do when you have really yucky plastic chairs, and your'e trying to put on a very nice garden party for your mother in law's 70th birthday? And you remember that you have about 60 metres of cream curtain fabric? And the reason for having 60 metres of curtain fabric is because they were selling it for $1.00 a metre, and it was buy one metre get one free, and you have had it jammed at the top of the wardrobe in the spare room for ages... what do you do?



You cover the chairs...!




And you also make table cloths for the outdoor tables, with little fabric weights in case the wind gets up. (The kids are using the fabric weights as juggling balls, and if I had known it would keep them this happy I would have made them some ages ago!)

A little peek at the colour scheme. A little hint. It involves pink tulle and a gazebo too ...

I hope it doesn't rain!

Get on over to Ric Rac

Jodie has the cutest funniest post today. See if you can help the girl out... she sounds desperate!

A Random Handy thing

Browsing through Tipnut, I found this very handy little tutorial for closing a bag without using a bag closer. Go here and find out how!
I didn't do any sewing yesterday because I went to visit my sister Lee, who is doing very well thankyou, and both her and Pauline loved their presents, as per previous posts. But look what Lee bought me for "looking after her". I didn't really a lot of looking after, just drank tea and talked all day!!

A little compact mirror with Swarovski elements.

I love the way the sticker says "Super Perfect" 5x. Im not sure I'm keen on the little sticker that states, for fine details. Because those fine details on my face are not that fine. Anyway I like to think that Lee Lee is telling me that I am Super Perfect!!!

I'm lucky eh!!

A Bag By Any Other Name would be... um

well it wouldn't be a bag bag and it probably wouldn't even be a makeup bag. But perhaps it could be a Smalls bag. I told you I go crazy once I'm on to something. This time I have made matching Smalls bags for my sisters Pauline and Lee. Lee as I said in my previous post travels a lot with her job, and Pauline and her husband Ted, well they just travel. Because they like to. And good on them I say. I just wish they would let me carry their passports. Anyway I made these for them, for their smalls, whilst they are away. I love that word for your knickers and wot not. Smalls. So old fashioned and kind sounding...

I cracked on with the embroidery thingy on my machine, and it came out okay. I could probably do with a bit more practice, but that I actually managed to programme in a whole world was a small miracle in itself!

A little footnote. I was making excuses that the photos were very dim, and my camera was playing up. The reason. Erm it was on a moonlight setting! nothing to do with me. I think a big kid did it and then ran away...!

A Makeup Bag

First a bag bag, and now a makeup bag. This is for my sister Lee. She is having a wee eye op today, and I hope she is okay. She does a lot of travelling with her job, and when I said I can do bag bags, or a makeup (type) bags, she said Yaay, because she doesnt have one and throws her mascara and wot not in her handbag. That will never do I cried, and thanks to this, I am able to make all manner of little bags with zips. Im lovin zips at the moment, because I have been phobic about them, until this little tutorial.
Anyway Lee Lee I hope you are all okay and I will be around tomorrow to make sure you dont bump into any walls!!

Once again apologies for bad quality of photo. Im sure there is something going on with my camera, because they are looking very dark and dim photos just lately. Nothing to do with my skills or anything. (mmmm hmm?)

Bedroom makeover

This was the colour scheme before I decided I was getting a bit sick of orangy tones. I originally covered our headboard in a lovely oak fabric, and I have loved it, but its been about 4 or 5 years now, and a change is as good as a rest, so I thought a duck eggy colour might be nice and restful, and the floral fabric in the pillows I picked up at Spotlight quite cheap. I love cheap (not nasty, just cheap!). We pinched the little used chair from Anna's room (it doesn't go with her colour scheme anyway) and away I went. So I made some cushions with zips in them and everything! They made up like a dream. I love it when that happens. The lace looking cushion is from a sample piece of fabric. So now I have to redo the big canvas by the bed and it's pretty much a done deal. Now... how can I convince Mike that the chilli coloured sofa's in the upstairs lounge are due for a makeover... Suggestions on the back of a postcard please!!!

The light is terrible so I apologise for bad quality. And I am probably rubbish at taking good craft photos anyway.

Giveaway thingys...?

Can anyone tell me if there is some sort of protocol with the whole Giveaway thingy? Like if I wanted to do a Giveaway thingy, do I have to follow some sort of rules? Lots of bloggy people do Giveaway thingys and I think it's a nice kind of thingy. You know... pay it forward sort of th... um I'll try not to say thingy again. Its one of those words that covers a multitude of unknown um... thingys.
I shall be quiet now and standby for further instructions. :0 )

Old Bag, Bag Bag, Bag Holder

Whatever you call it I made one. Here is the story...
I wanted to make one just like this, that my friend Tanya gave me for Christmas (with matching Apron!!) for my sister Pauline who sadly, has never owned a bag bag (thats what I call them)

and it turned out like this...

Ahem... yes I agree.

A very dismal effort indeed, and one I am rather embarrassed to send out to blogland. I just got all excited and started chopping and sewing without really thinking about it. I am quite impulsive at times and impatience often springs to mind when describing my character... anyway back to the story.

So I went for a simplified version, but I think this butcher stripe type fabric really makes it quite hip and funky (these aren't words I bandy about very often so excuse me trying to sound all... well ... hip and funky)

In my defence the photos don't do them justice, any of them. Except perhaps the one that didn't really work out. That one has come out so much better in the photo. Whats that all about?

Look what the cat dragged in...

For any of you Kiwis overseas in case your'e homesick or anything. We seem to find one of these a night. Usually somewhere near the cat door. Sometimes they are deceased but often alive! Our wee darling Cleo is a little cat so perhaps these are all she can handle, although we have had a bird and a mouse, but these seem to be her prey of choice at this time of the year.

Say hello to MR WETA!

And for any of you bloggers out there that are unfamiliar with NZ wildlife, I reckon this is as scary as it gets.
And to give you some perspective here is my big tall and brave 17 year old son Matthew holding one of the victims. This one? Deceased unfortunately. Or fortunately depending on where you stand with creepy crawlies. Me? I don't like standing anywhere near them frankly.

And here is Cleo...

Ahhh Bless..

Simplicity is a wrap around Skirt

I have a thing for 50's and 60's stuff, and 70's too if the truth is known. I found this pattern a while back at my favourite Op Shop. I just cannot go for long without having a browse around there. Anyway I made this skirt a while back in a Poppy floral fabric that I loved, (you may see a peek of it beside me in the photo) and it has been so cool and comfy, I brought out of hiding some more favourtie fabric, and made another one!!! It would probably have only taken me an hour or so to make, but with all the interuptions - phone calls/kids asking for food/daughter asking for sewing lesson/having to go into Howick village to the haberdashery shop for bias binding - that sort of thing, its taken me the best part of a very sunny day. But hey high tide isn't till 5.00 and there is left overs in the fridge so its a win win situation!!!

I did have to stand on the edge of the bath for this photo, and lets face it, its not very professional, but I hope your'e getting the idea here folks!

Our new addition has a name!

Ready for it? After much thought, and some input from you out there... well Joanna I have decided to call Brother NX400...

BILLY!!!!

It had to be, as Joanna from Applique Today suggested... Brother Billy... mmmhmm quite cute. Then she said her Dad's name is Bill... Mmmm. And then thats a bit spooky because my Dad's name was William, and about a week or so before Christmas I got a funny email saying someone thought they might be related to me. Yeah right I thought, you and every other Nigerian scammer, trying to get your hands on my millions (of cents). But then I read on and yes in fact this lady from Australia is in fact related to me, and she didnt ask for my bank account number or anything! It turns out that we are FIRST cousins, and we had no idea each of our families existed. Its a very long and interesting story about 3 brothers, one of whom was my father. He was in the Merchant Navy and jumped ship in Wellington and joined the NZ army (before WWII) then went to London married my mother and they both moved back to NZ. My father never spoke of his family. (Terrible upbringing), and never saw or contacted his brothers again. One of the brothers went to Australia and the other stayed in the UK. They all died not knowing where the others were. Then Marie in Australia and Peter in the UK, found each other, and after searching solidly for about 5 years found us. It was her last ditch attempt to find out what happened to my father, and it was a fantastic outcome. There is a lot more to this story and we are finally finding our ancestory so I couldn't be happier. Sadly my darling mum is not here to know we are all found but I think she and my dad may be smiling down from where they are....

Fabric Giveaway

Hey get on over to jellybelly*jellybrain
She is having a fabric giveaway. Leave a comment and you are in the draw. She has a fabo blog. This is my 2nd attempt to get the link thingy working, so good luck with it!!

Oh brother footnote

I should have mentioned that the fabric basket was from the Pink Penguin tutorial. I'm trying to work out that whole link thing to other blogs in my Posts, but I get my knickers in a right knot, and then have to go and cook the dinner or something equally annoyingly interfering!!!
Anyway thank you PINK PENGUIN for a fabo tutorial!

Oh Brother look what I made

Well we had a test run today, and I tried out a couple of fancy stitches. I made this fabric basket for my sister Lee, so Lee Lee if you read my blog before I get to you, you will know what your getting. Its a bit saggy on the lining but once you get your bits and pieces in it you wont even notice!


Bit of fancy stitching...

And then as is usually the case with me if I make one then I should really make about 27 of the things. But here is one for Anna's shelves, which will got with the bunting I made. Yaay I love my new machine, who's name will be announced soon...

A new addition to the family...

Ive been keeping it under my hat for a while now, but the time has come for the big announcement, because I wont be able to hide it for much longer...



Let me introduce you to Brother NX 400. After my letter to Santa, and I must have been very good this year, because he also brought me emerald earrings and necklace as well, I have added to the sewing room a brand new shiny machine. But please don't worry about Ms Jones, she has gone to a new room upstairs, and is now in a teaching role... and I couldn't be more proud!



Anna has been showing a very keen interest in learning to sew.... so



Sans needle and bobbin, she has been putting Ms Jones through her paces!!



Now I need to rename Brother NX400, because its a mouthful, and also sounds a bit official, calling my new sewing machine BROTHER!!! So anyone out there... all two of you... leave a comment with suggestions for brothers new name!!!!!